(Exeter 1725–1782 Florence)
The River Arno looking towards the Ponte Santa Trinita, Florence,
oil on canvas, 95.2 x 129.5 cm, framed

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Provenance:
Aristocratic collection, Florence and Naples during the 19th century;
thence by descent to the present owner

We are grateful to Hugh Belsey for confirming the attribution and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

Thomas Patch ‘came afoot’ from Exeter to Italy, accompanied by Richard Dalton (who was later to become the Librarian to George III of Great Britain), arriving in Rome some time in 1747. There he trained as a painter with the French artist Claude-Joseph Vernet, and his earliest work is close to the decorative style of his teacher, depicting rocky harbor scenes flanked by the occasional lighthouse or classical ruin. While he was in Rome, he recorded some of the better-known classical sites of the city and its environs. In 1755 he was given 24 hours to leave the city after being accused of homosexuality by the Inquisition and fled to Florence where he settled until his death in 1782.

The city of Venice had a rich and varied tradition of topographical painting and Rome was illustrated by the paintings of Panini and prints of Piranesi. Florence had been drawn and occasionally painted by Giuseppe Zocchi whose series of twenty-four topographical engravings of the city, published in 1744 was in such demand that it was reprinted ten years later. The series included six views of the River Arno, and number of panoramas of Florentine squares and festivals. The views of the city had proven popular with the grand tourists visiting the city and Thomas Patch, who had an inquisitive intelligence, recognised an opportunity for himself as a topographical painter. He referred to it in one letter as ‘abridge painting’, and as the easiest way for him to earn a living. Through his depictions of Florence, coupled with dealing in works of art - both classical and renaissance - he financed his scientific interest in physiognomy and its comic interpretation as caricature, going on to create a series of illustrations of gatherings of British Grand Tourists. In the 1770s he started an ambitious project to record the work of Florentine quattrocento artists such as Giotto and Masaccio, which he copied in detailed etchings, some using soft ground, published in a series of folio volumes.

Patch’s work as a topographical artist has become increasingly popular over in recent years. His views frequently used the same setting, but he added figure groups often laced with a hint of humour to create variety. ‘Abridge painting’ tended to feature the Ponta Santa Trinità looking upstream and the Ponte alla Carraia looking downstream as viewed from the Lungarno, scenes bustling with grandees, coaches and servants, boats with flags at their bows, weighed down with gesticulating passengers. The Duomo, invisible from this viewpoint, and the tower of the Palazzo del Gran Duca (now Palazzo Vecchio) peep over the riverside buildings and add variety and recognition for the viewer. The present painting shows quite a different view.

The present painting is probably one of the earliest views of the River Arno painted by Patch. Technically, the handling of the figures is less assured than in later examples and there are technical similarities with the views of the Ponte Lucano, the Tomb of Caecilia Metella and the Tomb of Horatii and Curatii (two of which are in the collection at the Lewis Walpole Library at Farmington, Connecticut) which appear to have been transplanted into a landscape reminiscent of the Fiesole countryside on the northern outskirts of Florence. The view is probably taken from the Ponte Vecchio looking west (downstream) towards the Ponte Santa Trinita, a bridge that was originally constructed between 1567 and 1570 by Bartolomeo Ammannati in consultation with Michelangelo. In shadow, on the left-hand side of the canvas is the back of the Palazzo Frescobaldi which was formed by consolidating a number of medieval buildings in the seventeenth century. In the thirteenth century the Frescolbaldi were responsible for financing the first bridge on the site. On the opposite bank is the Lungarno Acciaioli with buildings decorated in stucco and painted in terracotta, creamy whites and delicate greys punctuated with sharp-edged shadows. Beyond the bridge is the Palazzo Corsini which is often featured in Patch’s view of the river looking in the opposite direction. There are records of at least nine canvases reproducing upstream views of the bridge, the best known of them is perhaps the painting formerly at Broughton House in North Yorkshire (no. 49 in the exhibition Masterpieces from Yorkshire Houses at York City Art Gallery in January– March 1994). The canvas is often paired with a view looking downstream towards the Ponte alla Carraia which is a view not chosen by Zocchi for inclusion in his set of engravings (the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas at Lawrence, cat. no. 55.85, has the most accessible example of this view).

It is not known how Patch produced his topographical views. Did he make detailed topographical drawings, perhaps with the aid of a camera obscura? This may be the case, but he seems to have used a prototype as a basis for his river views. For the present view it seems unlikely that Patch used a boat from which to make a sketch. Instead it is more likely that he stood in the middle of the Ponte Vecchio and copied what he saw as he looked downstream. Of his known views of the Arno this is the only canvas which looks directly along the river. All the others are viewed from one or other of the banks. Perhaps the patron requested this particular view and perhaps he had a special association with this stretch of the river. It seems logical to assume that there must have been some particular reason for him and Patch to make the conscious departure from Zocchi’s engraved view of the Ponte Santa Trinita from the Lungarno Guicciardini. It involved Patch making a very detailed study which must indicate a willingness to satisfy an important client, a position he may have been more easily persuaded to take during his early Florentine years.